FMs of Iran, remaining JCPOA parties to meet in Vienna on Friday: IRNA

Foreign ministers of Iran and the five remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal are scheduled to meet in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Friday to discuss ways of maintaining the international accord after the US’s withdrawal.

IRNA reported on Tuesday that foreign ministers of Iran, Germany, France, Russia, the UK and China will hold their first meeting of the Joint Commission monitoring the implementation of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), since Washington’s pullout in May.

“At the meeting, which will be held at the request of Iran, foreign ministers of Iran and five world powers will discuss a European package of proposals and mechanisms to protect the agreement,” IRNA said.

Earlier this month, experts from the six countries held a meeting behind closed doors in Tehran on the fate of the Iran deal.

A Joint Commission meeting had also been held at the level of deputy foreign ministers in Vienne in late May.

The meeting was co-chaired by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi and Helga Schmid, the secretary general of the European External Action Service (EEAS). International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano also attended the meeting.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany in 2015.

Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

Since the US president pulled Washington out of the historic nuclear deal, European countries have been scrambling to ensure that Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal.

The remaining parties have vowed to stay in the accord.

The Europeans are expected to offer a package of proposals to Iran in order to keep the country in the JCPOA.

Araqchi said on June 23 that the Islamic Republic expected the EU to put forward its package by the end of June.